Middlesbrough Art Week will take place from September 25 to October 4, bringing together more than 50 artists for a programme of exhibitions, performances, talks, workshops and community events.
The festival coincides with the reopening of The Auxiliary Project Space and will take place across venues, empty shops and public spaces throughout Middlesbrough.
Liam Slevin, director of The Auxiliary Project Space and Middlesbrough Art Week, said: “Middlesbrough Art Week 2025 features over 50 artists in a core programme of exhibitions, talks, workshops, performances, installations and community participation all presented under the theme of In All Possible Worlds.
“MAW25 finds us looking out at a fragmented world, and are more than compelled to ask how we might imagine it differently.
“And this is the crux of it really, we need to find more common ground with one another, connect in more tangible ways and a festival can do this, it naturally brings people together and I’m very excited about the conversations that the work on show will spark.
“It’s a bold, ambitious programme that celebrates creativity, questions the present, and looks toward a more hopeful future.”
The theme for this year is In All Possible Worlds, inviting artists and audiences to imagine alternative futures.
The festival will feature artists working across sculpture, film, painting, installation, sound and performance.
Highlights of the programme include a new feature-length documentary about Mark Fisher, the late cultural theorist by artist duo Close and Remote, and an immersive video installation by electronic music group A Man Called Adam.
The installation, inspired by the wind turbines along the Redcar coastline, will combine live electronics with a brass and wind accompaniment.
At The Auxiliary, the exhibition Weapon and Wound will bring together artists exploring culture as both a ‘scar and a shield’.
Other exhibitions include Machine Learning by Mike Stubbs, which examines our relationship with technology and energy, and Burnout by Sigita Silina, described as a meditative space.
Darren Cullen, artist, will present Apartheid Apartments, a satirical estate agency installation addressing the politics of ‘occupation and erasure’.
Edel O’Reilly, executive director of The Auxiliary Project Space and Middlesbrough Art Week, said: “Middlesbrough Art Week isn’t just an artist-led festival, it’s a festival for artists, an open forum and supportive community to present and share complex works together, and you can really feel that every year when everyone comes to town to show.
“We always champion work from the North East, but artists at all stages of their careers, from regional to international, are showing up with works considering current and future ways of being, complexifying our complicity in conditions of war, technology, media, environment, identity and community while offering alternative ways through, of practice and solidarity.
“Our programme has been really nomadic for the past few years while our building was under development and it feels right to open the doors with Middlesbrough Art Week and welcome everyone back to The Auxiliary Project Space.”
The festival will also include 22 Carat Gold, an exhibition curated by Alex Zawadzki and Ishma Sha that celebrates four British South Asian artists exploring ‘heritage, womanhood and the cultural symbolism of gold.’
Throughout the exhibition spaces, specially designed chairs inspired by Enzo Mari and created in collaboration with schools in the area will offer visitors a chance to rest while sitting on functional artworks made by young people from the town.
For music fans, Teesside’s own Industrial Coast will host a series of exclusive nights at The Auxiliary featuring major names from the underground electronic scene.
The lineup includes Regis, a pioneer of the Birmingham sound, and Demdike Stare, the Manchester duo known for their genre-blurring mix of dark ambient, dub and techno.
Across the town, emerging artists will also have a platform.
The North East Open Call: In The Real will showcase work by five artists exploring contemporary life through film, painting and sculpture.
The New Graduate Award: Make/Shift will introduce 10 recent graduates from regional universities, all of whom have developed new work through a dedicated residency programme.
The festival’s film programme includes a screening of Censoring Palestine, a documentary examining the ways mass media, political institutions and policing suppress dissent.
The film features testimony from students, organisers and veteran filmmaker Ken Loach.
Audiences can also attend a special event with Freefilmers, a grassroots Ukrainian filmmakers’ collective whose work is rooted in ‘local stories, experimental approaches, and political urgency’.
Middlesbrough Art Week has grown alongside The Auxiliary Project Space, which began in 2016 as a self-funded sound art residency in a Stockton house.
It has since become one of the North East’s leading art organisations and is now part of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio.
Jane Tarr, director for the North East at Arts Council England, said: “We are proud to support The Auxiliary as part of our National Portfolio and it’s so exciting to see the new Auxiliary Project Space launching with Middlesbrough Art Week.
“Having accessible cultural spaces on the doorstep is vital for artists and for communities and this new space, supported by the DCMS’ Cultural Development Fund, will help make that real and visible.
“Middlesbrough Arts Week is always an innovative and creative experience for artists and audiences alike and I’m sure this year’s festival will be as exciting, thought-provoking and supportive of artists as ever.
“It’s always on my Don’t Miss list.”
The festival is supported by a network of collaborators including Mike Stubbs, Alex Zawadzki, Ishma Shah, Tim Maxymenko, Sue Loughlin, Penelope Payne and Steve Kirby.
Earlier this year, The Auxiliary received The Creative Innovation Award 2025.
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The award was presented by Azadeh Fatehrad, a Teesside University Professor who praised the organisation’s wider impact on the region.
Professor Fatehrad said: “The Auxiliary’s pioneering work in cultural infrastructure, public art commissioning, and creative industry support has not only enhanced the arts scene but also brought substantial investment, created jobs, and fostered community engagement.
“Their impact has extended well beyond the creative sector, strengthening the region’s economy and social fabric and made a significant and lasting contribution to Tees Valley’s cultural landscape.”
